Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is further to my Member's statement on treatment program that I did on October 20th. So it's for Minister of Health and Social Services.
Mr. Speaker, in the House on October 19th, 2022, the Premier noted that the Council of Leaders identified mental health and addiction and communitybased treatment as some of the primary issues for NWT residents. With that in mind, the Minister of Health committed to provide me with the number of NWT residents who have accessed treatment services since 2013. Have these statistics been provided? When does the Minister anticipate providing these statistics back to me? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Member for the question. I do not have those responses here today, and I haven't been given a date they're available. But I will commit now to making sure she has them before the session is over. Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, what initiative does NTHSSA currently have to ensure they provide residents with culturally safe addiction services following the Auditor General's report? Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in response to the Office of the Auditor General's report, we created a work plan which details our response to each of the recommendations, and we accepted all the recommendations.
We have, as the Member may know, a whole division within the department called community culture and innovation that looks at culturally appropriate services. And to that end, they've done extensive training with staff. They ensure that there is when people do go south for facilitybased treatment that there is appropriate cultural safety provisions in place. So that's just a very scatter gun approach to the answer but I do want to assure the Member that it's top of mind. Thank you.
Yes, thank you. During oral questions on October 20th, I asked if the Minister Green would commit to reopening an addictionbased facility and treatment wellness centre in the Northwest Territories. And the Minister responded no. She said that this she said, "the simple reason that we don't have a treatment centre is because they don't work. We tried four times. The effort to provide one treatment centre for all the regions, languages, and culture has not been successful. People do not attend."
So can the Minister provide the number of residents who attended the previous treatment centre in the NWT?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have with me information about how many people attended the four previous treatment centres that were offered in the NWT, but I will ask the department if they can produce that information.
I also want to say that we have had a preliminary conversation at the Council of Leaders about alternatives to one single facility for healing and treatment, which is what the Member asked for, to see if there's something that could be developed on a regional basis that would better meet the needs of both treatment closer to home and the particular languages and cultures of the NWT, each in a regional setting. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, before we continue, could you please check your phones. I could hear it vibrating on silence. So if we could just put it to silent, it would be most helpful. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member for Monfwi.
That all the questions I was going to ask. But can the Minister provide data to support the statement that "treatment centres do not work." Thank you.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the one facility that I am more familiar with is Nats'ejee K'eh.
Nats'ejee K'eh was never more than onethird full during the time that it was open, and the program cycled through 30 days for men and 30 for women. And so if you wanted to seek treatment and they were early into the opposite cycle, then you would have to wait potentially seven to eight weeks for intake. There was a problem attracting and keeping qualified staff. So what we found is that since we started contracting the southern facilitybased treatment, the number of people who are accepted into that and who are able to access it in a speedier way and a wider variety of options, including coed options as well specific to men and women, the number of people who are accessing the services more than doubled. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.
